PLEASE NOTE that this is a pre-order that will ship by October 6, 2026.

Author and film journalist Max Evry returns with Stranded on Earth: How Night Skies Became E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the follow-up to his bestseller A Masterpiece in Disarray: David Lynch’s Dune.

Stranded on Earth is a thrilling insider’s look at the long, winding road that brought 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to the big screen. Following Steven Spielberg’s journey from his teenage UFO film Firelight in the 1960s through 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the book then explores the creation — and collapse — of the nightmarish alien project Night Skies, ultimately reborn as the heartfelt classic E.T.

Along the way, Stranded on Earth uncovers the creative chaos, studio politics, and radical rewrites that transformed a dark and unsettling sci-fi film into one of the most beloved movies ever made. The book also reveals how pieces of the abandoned Night Skies lived on in classics like Poltergeist and Gremlins, helping shape the explosion of sci-fi horror from the early ’80s to today.

Featuring brand-new interviews with Spielberg collaborators, actors, artists, and industry insiders, Stranded on Earth is a fascinating chronicle of the making, unmaking, and remaking of a cinematic phenomenon.

Cover art by Ian Fried (aka Darkmatter).
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Details:
- Hardcover (with dust jacket) / 6” x 9” / 400 pages
- B&W Images
- Release Date: October 6, 2026

NOTE: Due to the weight of this item and current high shipping rates, domestic US orders only for this item. Limited edition version is also available at your local bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Indigo, and elsewhere.